Shows / Front Row
Episodes
- Front Row
Front Row reviews Indiana Jones; author Brandon Taylor; Young V&A reviewed
Our critics Hanna Flint and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh watch Harrison Ford’s last outing as the title character in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, also…
- Front Row
Playwright Kimber Lee, the art of pattern discussed, Elgan Llŷr Thomas on queer culture in classical song
In 2019 Kimber Lee won the first International Award from the Bruntwood Prize, the UK’s biggest national competition for playwriting, with her work - Untitled…
- Front Row
Michael R Jackson on his hit musical, Ray BLK on Champion, the Natural History Museum
Playwright and composer Michael R Jackson talks about his musical A Strange Loop, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The musical is based on his own…
- Front Row
Wes Anderson on Asteroid City, Bob Stanley on his biography of the Bee Gees
Wes Anderson, known for his quirky storylines and individual aesthetic, talks about his latest film Asteroid City. Set in 1955, at a science competition in the…
- Front Row
Elliot Page, Wicker Man music, Jewish Museum and Holocaust Memorial
Oscar-nominated Elliot Page, best known as star of comedy drama Juno, on coming out as gay and as a trans man, all in the glare of the Hollywood spotlight -…
- Front Row
National Portrait Gallery refurbishment and play Dear England reviewed, violinist Rachel Podger
Tom is joined by reviewers Boyd Hilton and Susannah Clapp who look at Dear England, a new play by James Graham at the National Theatre which examines the…
- Front Row
The winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, the MAC in Belfast and does the UK need more music arenas?
Front Row hears from the winner of this year’s Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, which is awarded for a book for children or young people. Manon Steffan Ros has…
- Front Row
The Beatles at Stowe, Nick Drake, Maggi Hambling
The Beatles at Stowe School: Front Row made the news with the discovery of the earliest recording of a concert by The Beatles in this country, at Stowe School…
- Front Row
Glenda Jackson remembered, Wayne McGregor, Black Mirror reviewed
Front Row plays tribute to Oscar winning actor Glenda Jackson, who has died aged 87. Theatre critic Sarah Crompton remembers the power of her stage…
- Front Row
The Burrell Collection, Accordion Quartet, Women's Prize Winner Barbara Kingsolver, Folk Film Gathering
Allan Little visits the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, which re-opened last year after a £68 million transformation and is now a finalist for Art Fund Museum…
- Front Row
Two debuts: novelist Cecilia Rabess, film director Dionne Edwards; the cost of maintaining arts organisations' buildings
Author and former data scientist, Cecilia Rabess joins Samira Ahmed to discuss her debut novel, Everything’s Fine, which explores the unlikely and complicated…
- Front Row
Mad Musicals, Eric Whitacre, Women's Prize - Laline Paull
Surprising musicals: new musicals are packing in audiences - and some with quite unlikely subjects. Whilst the classic Broadway musical, like 42nd Street, Guys…
- Front Row
Film Chevalier and new TV drama Significant Other reviewed
Gaming isn’t just something you play, it is also a spectator sport! Comedian and streamer Ellie Gibson and journalist and gamer Marie Le Conte join us to…
- Front Row
Dave Johns on I, Daniel Blake; the Liverpool Biennial; why Dario Fo's plays speak to this moment?
The Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest contemporary visual arts festival, begins this weekend. Arts journalist Laura Robertson reviews, and the curator of…
- Front Row
Rufus Wainwright, hairdressing film Medusa Deluxe, the rise of the understudy
Rufus Wainwright talks to Samira Ahmed about his new album Folkocracy, a collection of reimagined Folk songs. The album includes collaborations with artists…
- Front Row
Author Maggie O’Farrell, New opera Giant, The consumerism in creativity
Charles Byrne was an 18th-century “Irish giant” whose skeleton was stolen and put on display against his wishes. 240 years after his death, he is being…
- Front Row
Punk exhibition reviewed, Reality film director, TV drama White House Plumbers reviewed
Critics Katie Puckrik and Michael Carlson join Front Row to review the exhibition Punk: Rage and Revolution at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery and Soft Touch…
- Front Row
Shane Meadows on The Gallows Pole, and GoGo Penguin perform live
Writer/director Shane Meadows and actor Michael Socha on the new BBC TV adaptation of Benjamin Myers' novel, The Gallows Pole.The Mercury Music Prize-nominated…
- Front Row
Chita Rivera, a new funding model for the arts discussed, Priscilla Morris
Broadway legend Chita Rivera, who made her name playing Anita in the original stage production of West Side Story, talks to Samira Ahmed about the highlights…
- Front Row
The 75th anniversary of the Windrush - the cultural legacy of a generation
The Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks on 22 June 1948 from Jamaica. Front Row marks the artistic and cultural contribution of a generation of people…
- Front Row
Jhalak Book Prize, Tate Britain Rehang, The Little Mermaid, Cannes
The Jhalak Prize is an annual literary prize for British or British-Resident writers of colour, established in 2016. Previous winners include Reni Eddo-Lodge…
- Front Row
Playing Putin on stage in Patriots, DJ Taylor on Orwell, new V&A Photography Centre
Patriots, Peter Morgan’s play set in Russia in 1991, traces the rise and fall of Boris Berezovsky, who helped Vladimir Putin take power. As Patriots transfers…
- Front Row
Sparks, EM Forster adaptations, nature mystery writer Bob Gilbert
Sparks, the American pop duo formed in 1960s Los Angeles, are back with their 26th album, The Girl is Crying in her Latte. Samira Ahmed meets brothers Ron and…
- Front Row
Arlo Parks, Martin Amis remembered, depicting The Troubles
Singer songwriter Arlo Parks talks about following her highly acclaimed first album with a new release, My Soft Machine, which includes a collaboration with…
- Front Row
Caleb Azumah Nelson, Reviews of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret & China's Hidden Century
Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel, Open Water, won the Costa First Novel award and critical acclaim. He joins Front Row to talk about his second, Small Worlds…
- Front Row
Chuck D of Public Enemy on watercolours; author Jacqueline Crooks; artist Andy Holden
Chuck D on his watercolour art. He is regarded as one of hip-hop's greatest MCs with his powerful lyrical dexterity a key component in Public Enemy's…
- Front Row
Contemporary sari design; the politics of museum labelling; Mat Osman's novel The Ghost Theatre
Samira Ahmed talks to Priya Khanchandani, the curator of The Offbeat Sari, an exhibition of contemporary saris at the Design Museum in London.The art critic…
- Front Row
Brokeback Mountain on stage, Venice architecture biennale, author Tan Twan Eng
Brokeback Mountain on stage: musician and librettist Dan Gillespie Sells discusses writing the songs for a new stage production of Brokeback Mountain, adapted…
- Front Row
June Givanni on the PanAfrican cinema archive, Gwen John at Pallant House Gallery reviewed
In 2021, June Givanni was presented with the British Independent Film Awards Special Jury Prize for what was described as “an extraordinary, selfless and…
- Front Row
Author Louise Kennedy, Royal patronage in the arts, beatboxer SK Shlomo
Louise Kennedy's debut novel Trespasses has been shortlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. Set in Belfast in 1975 at the height of the Troubles it…
- Front Row
Dennis Potter’s newly discovered play, Cathi Unsworth on goth culture, artist Isaac Julien
Samira Ahmed speaks to John Cook, Professor of Media at Glasgow Caledonian University about his discovery of a previously unknown early version of the seminal…
- Front Row
Eurovision comes to Liverpool
Recorded at the Hornby Library inside Liverpool Central Library, in front of a live audience, as Liverpool gears up to host The Eurovision Song Contest on…
- Front Row
Playwright Jonathan Harvey on A Thong for Europe, Tom Hanks’s new novel reviewed
Merseyside-native Jonathan Harvey discusses his new play, A Thong For Europe, which combines his love of Liverpool with his passion for Eurovision to create an…
- Front Row
Writer Jack Thorne, Derek Jarman’s Blue reimagined, music for the King’s coronation
Jack Thorne talks about his new play, The Motive and the Cue, which is about John Gielgud directing Richard Burton in a 1960s production of Hamlet on Broadway…
- Front Row
Sir Lenny Henry on his new play, music from the Tashi Lhunpo monastery, publishing and net zero
Sir Lenny Henry is making his debut as a playwright for the stage with August in England, a one-man drama about the Windrush scandal. Tom Sutcliffe meets Lenny…
- Front Row
Rachmaninoff - the 20th century's great romantic
Samira celebrates the music and life of Sergei Rachmaninoff. With pianist Kirill Gerstein, who has released a new recording of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano…
- Front Row
Patrick Bringley on being a museum guard and TV drama Citadel reviewed
Patrick Bringley sought solace after the death of his brother and found it as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where he worked for ten…
- Front Row
The making of the new RSC production of Cymbeline
A special edition following the Royal Shakespeare’s Company’s new production of Cymbeline, the final play in Shakespeare’s First Folio - a collection that…
- Front Row
Playwright Ryan Calais Cameron, musician Stewart Copeland and is Morris dancing having a moment?
The playwright Ryan Calais Cameron's critically acclaimed play For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy has just transferred to…
- Front Row
Patrick Radden Keefe on the Sackler family, Iestyn Davies performs live, sustainable theatre
Patrick Radden Keefe, who has been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize of Prizes award, discusses his book Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the…
- Front Row
Everything But the Girl, French film Pacifiction and TV drama The Diplomat reviewed
Tom Sutcliffe meets Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt of Everything But the Girl as they release Fuse, their eleventh studio album and their first in almost 24 years…
- Front Row
Opera composer Jeanine Tesori, Margaret MacMillan on Paris 1919, new ideas in architecture
Composer Jeanine Tesori's Blue for the ENO; Baillie Gifford winner of winners for non-fiction shortlist - Margaret MacMillan; new ideas in architecture…
- Front Row
Jazz singer Georgia Cecile, the controversy surrounding Barcelona’s La Sagrada Família
Plans to finish Barcelona’s famous church, La Sagrada Família, have been causing controversy as they involve demolishing apartment blocks to make way for the…
- Front Row
Colin Currie performs live, author Catherine Lacey, the influence of Noel Coward
Percussionist Colin Currie performs live in the Front Row studio. He discusses his new interpretation of one of minimalist composer Steve Reich’s best known…
- Front Row
Front Row reviews Hamnet at the RSC and TV drama Obsession; Michael Frayn on his memoir
The RSC's production of Hamnet brings the bestselling, award-winning novel by Maggie O'Farrell to the stage. To review this reinterpretation of O'Farrell's…
- Front Row
Max Porter on new novel Shy, Chris Killip exhibition at the Baltic, Kevin Sampson on The Hunt for Raoul Moat
Screenwriter Kevin Sampson on the complexities of his new true crime drama for ITV, The Hunt for Raoul Moat.Max Porter found huge success with his first book…
- Front Row
Wade Davis on George Mallory, Benbrick on AI and creativity
A new exhibition of the Pre-Raphaelite Rossettis at Tate Britain in London explores the 'radicalism' of Dante Gabriel, Christina and Elizabeth (Siddal), and…
- Front Row
The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio
Front Row marks the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare's First Folio with former RSC Artistic Director Greg Doran, Guildhall Principal Librarian Peter Ross…
- Front Row
Ai Weiwei at the Design Museum and TV drama Rise of the Pink Ladies
Ai Weiwei: Making Sense. We look at the new exhibition which opens at the Design Museum in London tomorrow.Plus we review the new Grease prequel Rise of the…
- Front Row
Boris Becker documentary, Commemorating the Good Friday Agreement in art, Artist-led organisations
For his latest project, the Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has turned his attention to the original tennis wunderkind Boris Becker. He talks about the…
- Front Row
Joe Pearlman on his Lewis Capaldi film, author Craig Brown, Tartan at the V&A
BAFTA-winning director Joe Pearlman talks about his new Netflix documentary on Scottish pop superstar Lewis Capaldi, which is out tomorrow. In Lewis Capaldi…
- Front Row
Ria Zmitrowicz on The Power, The ENO’s The Dead City and God’s Creatures reviewed
Ria Zmitrowicz talks about her role in The Power, the TV adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s novel. She plays Roxy Monke, the daughter of a notorious crime boss…
- Front Row
Cash Carraway on BBC drama Rain Dogs, the might of the UK gaming industry, Kidnapped on stage
Rain Dogs, billed as ‘a love story told from the gutter,’ is a new comedy drama series starring Daisy May Cooper. Shahidha Bari is joined in the studio by the…
- Front Row
Musician Natalie Merchant, poet Victoria Adukwei Bulley, library funding
Singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant talks to Samira Ahmed about Keep Your Courage, her first album in nearly a decade.Libraries were awarded the smallest amount…
- Front Row
Barbara Demick on North Korea; Dungeons and Dragons controversy; folk musicians Hack-Poets Guild
Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick’s book 'Nothing to Envy' has been short-listed for this year’s Baille Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Winner of Winners…
- Front Row
Steven Knight on Great Expectations, After Impressionism at the National Gallery
Writer and director Steven Knight, whose work includes Peaky Blinders and SAS Rogue Heroes, discusses his new BBC adaptation of Great Expectations which stars…
- Front Row
Touchstones Rochdale art gallery's radical 80s history, James Shapiro on Shakespeare
A Tall Order! Rochdale Art Gallery in the 1980s is the name of the show currently on at Touchstones Rochdale, which reflects on the gallery’s radical history…
- Front Row
Danny Lee Wynter and play Black Superhero; badly behaved theatre audiences; violinist Pekka Kuusisto
Are theatre audiences behaving badly? After recent complaints, we discuss expectations of audience etiquette. Tom is joined by: Dr Kirsty Sedgman, Lecturer in…
- Front Row
Lisa O’Neill performs live, Dance of Death from the National Theatre of Norway
Irish singer songwriter Lisa O’Neill talks to Samira Ahmed about her latest album, All Of This Is Chance, and performs live in the Front Row studio. The…
- Front Row
Richard Eyre on his film Allelujah, and climate change TV drama Extrapolations reviewed
Richard Eyre on directing the screen version of Alan Bennett’s play Allelujah, starring Jennifer Saunders, set on the geriatric ward of a fictional Yorkshire…